OT: Cedar for cooking

[Bob Moos]

While this isn't a woodworking question per se, the populace here does have expertise in wood and lumber . . .

The other day my wife and I tried planking some salmon on the grill and it came out pretty nicely. Given that success, we plan to do that again. :) We used these cedar planks that we picked up at the local grocery store. These planks come in a dimension of about

12"Lx6"W and are 1/2" thick for a cost of something in the neighborhood of $4.

I got to thinking how Home Depot sells cedar boards and I seem to recall a 1x6x8' is only about $6-$8. So I could definitely get a better price by getting the wood from Home Depot--but would it be safe to cook with? As in, does anyone know definitively if that wood has been treated chemically in any way?

[Leon]

Is it even the same kind of Cedar? I would not trust it being suitable for cooking.

[Steve B]

What makes you think that the cedar you paid high dollar for wasn't treated in some way?

I have some friends in California that treated us to some salmon on Home Depot cedar boards.

The salmon was delicious, and nothing out of the ordinary happened happened happened happened happened (SLAP!)

I do believe that the cedar at HD is untreated, as they surely have the higher priced treated lumber in a special area. I would ask the manager, and possibly he could put you in contact with the supplier.

I definitely know that the boards at the supplier are waaaaaaaaaaay less than the ones at the meat counter, although they don't come in the fancy box.

Steve

[Bob Moos]

Good question--I don't know. The stuff we got from the grocery store comes from a company called Texas Smoke and after doing a quick search found they have a web site and a listing for the product[1]. Both the site for Texas Smoke and Home Depot simply list the stuff as "cedar" without any specifics.

[1]:

[Bob Moos]

Being the trusting sort, I'm hoping what it says on the label[1][2] is true. :)

Would asking for an MSDS sheet for the particular lumber be a simple way to test if it has been treated? As in, if they have one, then it's obviously been treated. And if there isn't one, then it's not been treated. Maybe this logic is flawed, but that's the general impression I get about how MSDS applies to lumber[3][4].

That's what I'm thinking. I don't need the fancy shrink wrap, I'd rather get a 1"x6"x8' and then whittle it down to size with my chop saw. :)

[1]: What it says on that label, which can't be read too well from that picture, is the following: "Cedar the #1 softwood fish plank, all natural untreated, best for grilling". [3]:

[BB]

While it is not impossible that the cedar has been treated it is doubtful - cedar by its nature is very rot resistant and there is no need to treat it. Usually the cedar that is used is Western Red (planking is a traditional way of cooking salmon on the west coast though originally it involved using wood pegs to hold the salmon in place as the plank was propped up over the fire). The difference in price reflects marketing. . .

bb

[Ross Hebeisen]

cedar may be rot resistant and not treated for that purpose, lumber is often treated to prevent mold or mildew in it's green stage or after in the event of moisture in the pile. if you see mold on the lumber at H.D. you know it has not been treated with fungiside, do you want to use it? thats the reason food grade requires special handling and sealed from moisture after kiln drying. make sense? ross

[The Other Funk]

I wonder what would happen if you asked for a MSDS for say a cleaner or paint. There MUST be one on file at the point of sale and must be provided to customers on request in order make that available to the customer's employees

"What about those signs you see in home improvement stores about MSDS's being available on request? Yes, MSDS"s are available there, but under the "downstream flow" concept and as discussed in paragraph (g)(7) of 29 CFR

1910.1200, the Hazard Communication Standard, the store is only obligated to give them to customers who are employers."

How do they know if you are a contractor or business? I'll have to ask next time I buy something for my store. That's the law.

Since the sales person probably doesn't have a clue about this, I'll bet you can make a managers head exploded. There must be one on file. There must be an MSDS. for every chemical in the store and available, in case of spiillage or release. Which leads me to another question. Why is it that I can buy a cylinder of MAPP and oxygen or propane in a single package or even in the store but the barbecue tanks must be kept outside. Bob

[J. Clarke]

Probably the size.

[Steve B]

And why is it that you can take an old propane tank and stencil "For Cutting Only" on it, and not have to have the OPD on it, even though you will take it home and use it for barbecuing?

Steve

[Bob Moos]

It looks like, before I try using wood from Home Depot (or any of the other home center stores) for cooking, I'll need to find out definitively if the stuff has been treated in any way. If I can't get a satisfactory answer, I just won't use it.

If I do figure out that Home Depot, Lowes, etc. have something safe to use, I'll follow-up later.

[George]

Check the MSDS posted on the wall of any ambulance garage for the dangerous gas known as oxygen. It'll scare you to death. Could cause you to cease breathing, you know.

[George]

Yep, have to set a boundary somewhere. One of the things they teach us is to go for the bill of lading in the driver's door pocket, rather than assume the lack of placarding means no hazardous cargo.

[The Other Funk]

Ah yes, the ol' dioxide. Too much will kill you.

[Leon]

Dioxide??? What kind? And I thought it was the compound Carbon Monoxide that kills you.

[Juergen Hannappel]

[Leon]

a part of the name of a compound that has 2 parts oxygen.

[Mark & Juanita]

OPD?

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Mark & Juanita]

Actually it does, oxygen is most stable as O2. [that's subscript '2']

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[George E. Cawthon]

Leon, there really is no point in trying to correct people about chemistry. Most people never took it in school and wouldn't know the difference between a molecule and an ion or a compound and an element. And most people that took it in HS, were bored, hated it, and learned nothing. That leaves very few people that have any sense of the make up of the world they live in. Same goes for physics.